PRAISED AS WORKERS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25802, 24 March 1945, Page 8

PRAISED AS WORKERS

ITALIAN WAR PRISONERS

N.S.W. FARMER ABUSED (0.C.) SYDNEY, Mar. 13. A farmer of Gunnedah, Western New South Wales, .brought abuse on his head this week when he claimed that “ one pound a week Italian prisoners of war were better farm workers than basic wage Australians.” The farmer, Mr Frank Foster, who is a veteran of the last war and this, said that it would be a national tragedy if the Italian war prisoners were prevented from working on farms. “The Italians I have employed are hardworking, cheerful men, who learn quickly, and do not worry about hours,” Mr Foster said. “But the average Australian farm worker nowadays works a few days a week for 255, 30s, or more a day, and then knocks off.”

Mr Foster added that Australia would have no hope of guaranteeing record crops for the war effort if farmers had to depend on the civilian labour market. “Italian war prisoners in my district and other country districts'have saved the day for farmers,” Mr Foster said. ‘‘The Italians have helped to gather crojis in record time, while Australian farm labourers walked off the job before it was completed.” Mr Foster said he objected to a proposal that farmers should pay to the Government the equivalent of the basic wage for the use of Italian war prisoners. “We pay the Government £1 a week for the use of the Italians, and we have got to feed them and look after them all the year round,” he said. “ The smaller farmers employ Australian labourers at basic wage rates only at harvest time. If they had to pay men award rates all the year round they would go broke.”